ATLANTA — Whenever Bill Self’s best Kansas teams have had a dominant post player, the big fella has had a sidekick. Keith Langford for Wayne Simien. Sherron Collins for Cole Aldrich. Tyshawn Taylor for Thomas Robinson. Devon Dotson for Udoka Azubuike.
It’s clear that everything this season runs through Hunter Dickinson, and the 7-foot-2 fifth-year senior played like a star in a 77-69 win over Michigan State on Tuesday night at the Champions Classic. Dickinson had 28 points, 12 boards, three steals and a variety of preplanned celebrations against his old rival from his three years at Michigan.
But outside of Dickinson, the top-ranked Jayhawks didn’t have much else cooking on the offensive end in one of the sleepiest, sloppiest games in this event’s history. The Jayhawks might be ranked No. 1, but they just don’t look the part and aren’t going to until Dickinson gets some consistent help from a sidekick or two.
“I still think our team isn’t a square peg in a round hole; it’s more like an octagon-type piece that’s round, but it just won’t fit in the round circle,” Self said. “It’s close, but it just doesn’t yet.”
Self had hoped to get Dickinson some help in the transfer portal. He already had a table setter at point guard in Dajuan Harris Jr. and another setup man at power forward in KJ Adams, but he needed scorers. Preferably scorers who could shoot.
The hired guns were AJ Storr, Wisconsin’s leading scorer; Zeke Mayo, the reigning Summit League Player of the Year at South Dakota State; and Alabama’s Rylan Griffen, a starter on a Final Four team.
Storr appeared to be the leading preseason candidate to be Dickinson’s Robin because he’d already been a volume scorer at the high-major level, but he has had the toughest transition. At Wisconsin, he was allowed to be a ball stopper and take hard shots. Self, to borrow a phrase from San Antonio Spurs legendary coach Gregg Popovich, prefers point-five basketball, where a player has a half-second to make a decision with the ball.
“New people really don’t get what Coach wants until like January, end of December or so,” Harris said. “It is going to take time.”
It’s an adjustment to operate in a world where a shot for yourself is not the No. 1 option and you’re instead always looking to feed the ball into the post. That’s the world Kansas lives in right now. Dickinson is the offense’s security blanket when shots aren’t falling, but looking to get him the ball at every opportunity also naturally takes away some aggressiveness from perimeter players.
Kansas had 19 post-up plays against the Spartans, per Synergy, and Dickinson is averaging 8.3 post-ups per game so far, compared to 5.7 per game last season when KU had much less firepower.
“That’s not how we practiced at all,” Self said. “We haven’t practiced on trying to get Hunter the ball. We practiced on playing four around one, playing him on the perimeter a ton, and utilizing him to help space the floor.”
But when Self feels he needs a bucket, his go-to is to draw up a play to get Dickinson a post touch — which he did twice down the stretch in Friday’s win against North Carolina — and that became the priority on a night when it seemed like the bucket shrank for both teams once they tried to shoot from beyond the arc.
Of course, the Jayhawks deserve credit for continuing to go to the one thing that was working. Michigan State seemed to have found something early in the second half when Jaxon Kohler scored in the post on back-to-back possessions, and the Spartans went back to Kohler on the next trip, but he got only one more post touch in the final 13 minutes.
Meanwhile, the Spartans did get off 10 more 3s, and hey, they did shoot those at a better rate, making two of their final 10, compared to just one of their first 14. The Jayhawks were a red-hot 5 of 17 from 3, and Mayo, who had made eight 3s in the first two games, missed all three of his 3-point attempts.
Mayo now appears to be the most likely primary sidekick, and he still made an impact despite his shooting woes, finishing with 10 rebounds and seven assists. Griffen also made a difference, burying a big 3 with just under six minutes left after Michigan State had cut Kansas’ lead to three.
Storr also had an important bucket — an and-one in transition in the second half — but he fouled out in 12 minutes and is averaging just eight points through three games. Storr has struggled the most to find his place in the half-court offense, and the challenge, Self says, is to get his transfer guards to start reacting instead of thinking.
“When you have to think and you’re an athlete, you’re slow, and you’re always hesitant,” Self said. “There’s no reaction to it right now. It’s like they’re trying to process things because they want to — they’re great kids and they want to do what you want them to do — but doing what you want them to do requires a thought process now instead of reaction.”
It’ll help when Adams is healthy again. He hurt his ankle on Friday and hadn’t practiced since, then played 27 minutes on Tuesday. Michigan State tried to take away his short rolls. Izzo said Adams passes like Magic Johnson and screen and rolls like Draymond Green: “He’s lethal.” When Harris hits Adams in the middle of the floor and he then finds someone open on the perimeter, that creates opportunities for guards to either get open shots or drive.
Izzo was questioned afterward about not doubling Dickinson, which allowed the center to have a monster game, but the strategy turned out to sort of work in Michigan State’s favor. When Dickinson does get doubled, he’s adept at finding open teammates, and much like Adams in the short roll, that creates a domino effect where the ball starts moving and driving lanes or open shots present themselves.
When that happens, this Kansas team will have found the best version of itself, the one that Self envisioned when he went out and brought in five transfer perimeter players.
“When those guys figure it out, hopefully it will be sooner rather than later,” Self said, “we’ll look a lot different.”
Until then, the Jayhawks can always fall back on feeding Dickinson. That’ll be KU’s win-ugly mode, which is always a point of pride for Self, who became the all-time winningest coach in Kansas history on Tuesday night. And he went to the well for one of his favorite lines to open his press conference, saying to have a great season that you have to win the games you’re supposed to win, win when you play great and then find a way to win some when you’re not your best.
Self never says that line after his team wins pretty. And great teams minimize that final category. Kansas probably isn’t there yet. It has the potential to be.
But this was a rare Champions Classic game where it wasn’t going to take much to win. Against top-tier opponents — Michigan State doesn’t appear close to that this season — it’s going to take more than a one-man show.
(Photo: Kevin C. Cox / Getty Images)
